Findings of a series of studies on individual differences and maturational changes in expressivity at the neonatal stage and during early infancy are reported. Research results indicate that newborns are able to discriminate and imitate the basic emotional expressions: happy, sad, and surprised. Results show widened infant lips when the happy…

Individual differences in same-aged children's reasoning about effort and ability, as well as the consequences of different forms of reasoning in actual achievement situations, were investigated. It was hypothesized that different forms of children's reasoning would be related to different (helpless versus mastery-oriented) motivational patterns.…

The heterogeneity of alcoholic populations may be one reason that few specific therapeutic approaches to the treatment of alcoholism have been consistently demonstrated to improve treatment outome across studies. To individualize alcoholism treatment, dimensions which are linked to drinking or relapse and along which alcoholics display significant…

Part of a series designed to facilitate integration of severely handicapped students, the booklet presents a module on promoting the acceptance of individual differences. The instructor's information lists objectives and procedures for addressing five competencies: (1) to develop an awareness of one's own attitudes toward disabled persons to…

While changes in levels of activity and in social relationships in old age have interested researchers for some time, longitudinal studies have only recently begun to yield information about changes in social relationships across time for older adults. Parents (N=74) of the 1928-1929 Guidance Study and Berkeley Growth Study children, who are now…

This document discusses the differences in maturity of late adolescents, aged 16 to 21, and how lack of readiness by some adolescents has a major impact upon communities and upon the individual. The document illustrates the tension between individuation and regulation with five vignettes of actual cases. Sources of variation, including biological…

Cognitive theorists distinguish between two forms of memory. Explicit memory, requiring the conscious reinstatement of episodic memories, is manifested on traditional tests where the student is asked to retrieve information previously learned. Implicit memory is evoked when task completion is facilitated by prior experience with a similar task.…

The application of Piagetian theory to educational practices encounters a series of major difficulties. The main focus of this paper is on the notion of general stages, which has been under attack in numerous studies. Organized in four parts, the paper: (1) discusses the problem of the existence of general stages and of a developmental…

A study was conducted to examine the task-related help-seeking behavior of 85 third- and fifth-grade boys and girls of varying scholastic ability. Participants, white middle-class children, were blocked into high- and low-ability groups on the basis of word comprehension subscores on the California Achievement Test. Children were presented with 16…

A new approach to assessing unexpected differential item performance (item bias or item fairness) is introduced and applied to the item responses of different subpopulations of Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) takers. The essential features of the standardization approach are described. The primary goal of the standardization approach is to control…

This project was designed to construct a single theoretical framework for the analysis of problem solving and real time "attention and performance" behavior. The model was developed as a computer program. It was designed in a similar manner to that of various problem solving simulations that use the "production system"…

Several self-report studies of mood and activity have produced evidence of culturally biased theories which people share about the relationship between affect and behavior. In these studies, biased reporting may have been increased by taking mood and activity ratings concurrently rather than employing lagged independent ratings. To identify…

A study attempting to disclose dilemmas encountered by university professors as a means of better understanding their inner world is discussed. The nature of these dilemmas is investigated via the thinking aloud technique. Twelve subjects were asked to think aloud about dilemmas they encountered in their work, and the flow of thoughts was…

Several researchers have recently suggested, on limited data, that personality measures are more valid for individuals for whom inter-item variance is low. Questions remain concerning the robustness of the effect reported in these studies and whether general traitedness or traitedness within specific dimensions will moderate correlations other…

This study, which was designed to identify factors contributing to children's construction of temporal relationships, investigated 10-year-olds' thought and understanding of historical time. A total of 10 children 10 years of age were interviewed on videotape and asked to construct a time line of historical events and persons. In interviews,…